Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!johnt
From: matth@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Matthew Hannigan)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Multifinder - Just the Facts, man.
Message-ID: <1990May4.074556.26491@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU>
Date: 4 May 90 07:45:56 GMT
References: <20499@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <8930@hubcap.clemson.edu> <10143@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> <43785@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu> <7416@wehi.dn.mu.oz> <1990May3.042500.18758@wam.umd.edu>
Reply-To: matth@extro.ucc.su.OZ.AU (Matthew Hannigan)
Organization: University Computing Service, Uni. of Sydney, Australia.
Lines: 38

In article <1990May3.042500.18758@wam.umd.edu> ddev@wam.umd.edu (Don DeVoe) writes:
>In article <7416@wehi.dn.mu.oz> BAXTER_A@wehi.dn.mu.oz writes:
>>In article <43785@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu>, sl195091@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Andy Hartman) writes:
>>> In article <10143@sdcc6.ucsd.edu> cs163wed@sdcc10.ucsd.edu (see far) writes:
>>>>
>>>>ISn't the AMiga's multi-tasking program swapping?   Unless you have
>>>>several amigas at once, you can never run programs simultaneously.
>>>>Amiga's multitasking only tricks you into thinking it is running
>>>>programs "simultaneously". 
>>>>
>>>>After all, you get only one 68000 in an amiga, don't you?
>>
>>Youre right, Andy.
>>This drongo doesn't know the difference between multitasking and parallel
>>processing.
>
>Tell us, just what is the difference? In a strict sense, you can't have
>(true) multitasking without multiple processors...anything else is just
>program swapping; multitasking is implicitly denied in a single processor
>system. And just what is a drongo, anyway?
>--
>Don DeVoe       "Every jumbled pile of person has a thinking part that wonders 
>ddev@epsl.umd.edu  what the part that isn't thinking isn't thinking of" -TMBG

Yes, you can get true multi-tasking on a single processor machine.
Just about every multi-tasking computer up to now has had a single main
processor. I suggest anybody really interested in this subject reads
a text, say "Tanenbaum : OS - Design and Implementation" before
contributing on this thread. Also, the use of the word 'swapping'
has other connotations when discussing OS's - the word(s) you're
after is probably 'task-switching'.
This subject seems to come up (too) frequently on c.s.amiga.

'Drongo' is a bit of Australian slang. I guess a close definition
would be 'someone not afraid of showing their ignorance' :-)

Regards,
	-Matt